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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Hello! Hello!! It was a long period of hibernation over my blog! But now I'm back all refreshed for the new year...

Today is a special day, it's the day of celebrating one year of our love! Its our First Wedding Anniversary!
Few days back, I was looking for heart shaped chocolates at Fantasie, but to my utter disappointment, I was told that heart shaped chocolates are made only during Valentine season :( Motifs of love are not like Christmas which have time span every year. Ideally they should be available all round the year... what say?!
Anyways, so I decided to make various hearts at home... some edible and some decorative :)

So here are some cutlet hearts and quilled hearts which made a fab beginning of the day!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

In past few months, the magnitude of my blogging has reduced enormously :( and I am not liking it! May be it is the post wedding effect of being busy with added responsibilities, which I am sort of liking :) !!

Well well, it was my first Diwali with all new specialties celebrated in Nashik, but I missed my home town Solapur very much! Missed doing the rangoli on a tiny tile, missed my lil niece and nephew, missed the pooja and pan-supari, missed the family gatherings, missed my friends over an ice-cream and missed every bit of the Diwali in Solapur!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Im not a stamp collector who keeps track of the new and upcoming stamps
in the philatelic bureau, but my friend DJ is one! Few months back she
told me about the Mahatma Gandhi stamp which is printed on Khadi, and the very
presence of textile in it interested me to posses one! Khadi is a new
material for the philatelics and is indeed a wonderful one! This stamp
was released in Feb 2011 in Delhi and with kind efforts we bought it
from the philatelic bureau in Mumbai in June 2011. Dj has written a post
about it here.

Today, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, I thought of sharing this proud possession on my blog!

All images are from the miniature sheet of the stamp. Several details of the stamp can be google-d!

"The 'Khadi spirit' means fellow-feeling with every human being on earth. It means a complete renuncia of everything that is likely to harm our fellow creatures, and if we but cultivate that spirit amongst the millions of our countrymen, what a land this India of ours would be!"

- MahatmaGandhi

Young India, 22-9-1927

This and many more rich thoughts of Gandhi on Khadi are in his book "Khadi, why and how"

This also reminds me that its time to buy some nice khadi from the Khadi Bhandar :)

Saturday, August 27, 2011

We have a waterfall when it rains :)
One of the pleasures of living besides the few hills of Mumbai. A restful view away from the restless world, a calm chair in the balcony, hot steaming tea and casual conversations! That's a perfect rainy Saturday!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Tynrong! I like the name! Isn't it a striking one?!! A small village about 29 km from Cherrapunjee. 25 km of drive and the rest is a 1.5 hour of walk steep down hill. Next day it takes about 2.5 hours to walk back up and then legs are completely out of order! You walk like a duck for next 48 hours. (This is what happened to me :) It is a beautiful village on the hilly slopes nearing Bangladesh border with areca and orange trees allover.
Apart from areca nuts and oranges, Tynrong is known for pineapple fiber craft. Fiber is extracted from pineapple leaves then it is dried, sometimes dyed, twisted and knotted to make beautiful products like doilies, coasters, bottle bags, mobile bags etc.
With the craftspeople, I explored the pineapple fiber with some colored beads beads, knots and shapes and tried to make some hand knotted and beaded jewellery. Here are few pictures of the same...

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

It's not many days that Aarti has been away from your country of clouds, and she is already missing them! May be she badly needs them! Within fifteen days she has come from extremes of 14 degree to 43 degree Celsius of atmospheric temperature. Clouds have arrived on the Mumbai horizon and all of Aarti's friends are happy and she is waiting for her part of happiness.
Kindly arrange loads and loads of clouds for her in Ahmedabad, as you have them in abundance.
Thanking you...

With Regards,
Gujarat

PS: Issued in interest and concern of all the Amdavadi public.

A panorama of clouds on the way to Nongriat in East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Having been disappeared from the tropical region for quite some time, I have majorly missed on the "MaNgO" part of it! Few days left for the arrival of monsoon, I still had a chance to relish the mangoes but some ill health due to the drastic climatic change has abstained me form doing so...*sigh* *sigh sigh*

Made this pattern as an ode to the missed mangoes of this season...!Also, I have missed on an important day of my blog, the Hot and Happy "Second Anniversary!" dated 20th May!!Thanks for all the love...:)

Friday, May 27, 2011

Two months of Meghalaya! Feels like this time was too short and has quickly passed... and the end of two months has brought me back to aamchi Mumbai, I like it as aapli Mumbai!Things changed for past two months and now are back to being usual!

View from the Cherrapunjee Circuit House

I am back...from Meghalaya to Mumbaifrom high altitude to sea levelfrom hills to plainsfrom rivers to the seafrom winter to extreme summerfrom pine trees to coconut treesfrom room heaters to air conditionersfrom woolens to cottonsfrom clouds in the sky to skyscrapersfrom ever turning roads to endless flyoversfrom ML 04 to MH 04from no street lights to the hoarding diwalifrom MRDS to MMRDAfrom Jowai to Powaifrom Tynrong village to Thakur villagefrom Police bazaar to Crawford marketfrom Laitmukhra to Linking roadfrom jadoh to masale bhatfrom fresh water fish to salt water fishfrom plucked lychee to Rs. 6O for a dozen...

A typical Mumbai picture with the heritage architecture of CST

from research work to development work!

And this reminds me of my pending work. It is high time I get back on the Mumbai track!But I love being back home and also miss the time there!Will keep posting about Meghalaya till I have subjects which make interesting posts... and I promise not to bore you by that!:)

Friday, May 20, 2011

No concept of fresh milk here! It is either Amul Tazza or Nestle Everyday milk powder... and that's why it is Sha Saw (red tea)!Sha is "tea" and Saw is "red" in Khasi. One cup of boiling water, perfect amount of tea leaves and optimum sugar makes a cup of steaming hot sha saw to begin your day in a perfect way! Go to local shops, homes or any offices... sha saw is what you will be offered along with some jing bam.

The concept of snacks with the tea is called "jing bam" and it is as exciting as it sounds! The kong (lady) will first offer you sha saw and then in a beautifully handcrafted squarish bamboo basket comes the a variety of jing bam to choose from...It is a confusing situation as you have to choose from a variety of yummy snacks. And you have to be quick! Rice cakes, pan cakes, pattices, puffs, cream rolls, jam buns, sweets of different kinds with samosas, bhajiya and much much more...

Sha saw is available all over Meghalaya. But we loved one place- Lakadong Tea stall, is a small tea stall in one of the crowded corner of Jowai market where you will get customized tea...light, strong, more sugar, less sugar or no sugar! Sha saw with cheeni kum was what I always asked for!

Red tea and black gram cooked in onion seed spice.

Rice pancake with sugar topping.

The size of the jing bam basket and the variety of snacks increases as you move from smaller offices to more higher rank and important offices of Meghalya! :P
Unfortunately :( I do not have any picture of the jing bam basket and the "giver of jing bam" in every office; the kong dressed in a typical checkered jain kryshah!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Khublei Shibun means "Thank you very much" in Khasi language. This is the first khasi word I/we (me and Soumya) learnt and is the most pleasing and helpful too.To admire the overwhelming greet, cooperation and friendship by the lovely people (now friends) of Meghalaya, we made a few Khublei Shibun cards. Here are a few of them...Khublei Shibun to Ali bhai- the best cook, Shyl Sema- the stylish friend, Sir Hajong- the helpfullest, Bah Pariat- the IIM A man, Peter Marbaniang- the NIDian, Anushka Sharma- the designer, Sujeena Manpoong- the Guwahati friend, Morcha Pde- the SIM friend, Carlo Marbaniang- the architect friend, Mandy- the engineer friend, Ashok Elwin- the well known, Mr. Ladi- the sculptor, Mr. Febby- the NIFT fac, Dorjee- the NIFT fac, Jonathan Rymbai- the busiest man, Ricky- the cool company, Harmless- the non-harmful, Kong Baliyan- the doer of all things, Sir Deepak Chanda- the precise man, Madam Passah- the only madam, Kentiew- the manager, Kong Nian- the enthusiast 1, Hiebhah- the young energy, Dr. Joan- the lady with details, Fomley- the bike rider, Ruati Darnei- the designer, Oriland- the new friend, Mr. Good Year- the good taxiwala, Diana Jathang- the friend, Kong Nampui- the Saipung lady, Mr. Nampui- the Saipung man, Mr. Mangaya- the guide, Jenny- the best friend 1, Chuani- the best friend 2, Sanga Sir- the enthusiast 2, Rema- the cool school teacher, Chungnumga- the secretary, Sumarsing Sawiam- the traditional expert, Teilang Khyriem- the almost busy man, Mang- the perfect entertainer, Bless- the on phone man, Buh- the Sunday awaiting man, William- the best driver, Riew- the never-been-out-of-Meghalaya man, Riaz Bhai- the first and best taxiwala, Sujeet bhai- the exploiting taxiwala, Rashid bhai- the nice taxiwala, Bah Mahesh- the cool dude, Mr. Diengdoh- the Ribhoi expert, A. Khonglam- the in office man, Mr. Bang- the man in office, Pochester Kharkongar- the bureaucrat, Eson- the smart man, Kong Balbara- a typical character, Balawan- the sweet chap, Kong Rikynti- the friendly lady, Ivoreen- the married mystery, Thup- the silent man, Ilis Kramsa- the enthusiast 3, Yar- the Saitsama madam, Bercy- the cousin, T. K. Darnei- the Saipung help, Mayfereen- the NGO lady, Arun Diengdoh- the brother in law, Mr. Yake- the name mystery taxiwala and the countless taxis between Jowai and Ummolong and many more people.

Kublei Shibun to the unlimited pack of Lays- cream and onion, Maggi cuppa mania- chilli chow yo, the bakeries in Jowai, Amul butter and Kissan mixed fruit jam, Britania good day biscuits, Bisleri water and the dal-chawal and alu fry of 5 Stars dhaba for surviving us in Jowai. Khublei shibun to Cafe Shillong, Centre Point, Bread Cafe and Subway for making a difference in Shillong!

Khublei Shibun to all those who have made this trip fantabulous and unforgettable for us!We love Meghalaya!

*LOVE*Aarti :)

KHUBLEI is the word to wish well, KHU meaning bless and BLEI meaning God, from the depth of the heart and soul.(Ref.: Golden Vine of Ri Hynniewtrep- The Khasi Heritage by Sumar Sing Sawian)